Mike McGraw: Will Bulls trade Salmons?

If Salmons doesn’t opt out, it would put a huge dent in the Bulls’ cap space. Without Salmons’ contract, the Bulls have around $33.1 million in commitments, which should give them more than $20 million to spend on free agents.

With that in mind, would they try to remove the doubt and deal Salmons for an expiring contract? That all depends on how much another team would value Salmons. The 6-7 swingman has been a good defender this year, even while his shot isn’t falling.

Anyway, here are a few ideas off the top of my head involving playoff-contending teams that might be interested in adding an asset and have expiring contracts to unload:

--To Boston for Brian Scalabrine and Tony Allen.

--To Oklahoma City for Matt Harpring. The former Jazz forward is about to retire due to injuries, but the Thunder just acquired his expiring deal.

--To Dallas for Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas. This would be a funny one, but I doubt if the Bulls are allowed to trade for Thomas, since they bought him out last summer and are still paying a portion of his old contract. Maybe they can. I’ll look it up another time. The Mavs have other guys who could work.

--Don’t know if the Bulls want to mess with Houston’s Tracy McGrady. But they could do something like Salmons, Brad Miller, Jerome James and Aaron Gray for McGrady, Brian Cook and Joey Dorsey.

This is all just something to think about. Too soon to say if there could be any reality to this scenario. Teams generally discuss ideas in January and get serious in February when the trade deadline (Feb. 18 this year) approaches.